User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
StratandSurf
a AudioPhile

Date Reviewed: April 11, 2006

Bottom Line:

After enjoying (and still using a DCM-370 CD player) I bought the high end 2900 DVD Player. It has been a two year struggle with various software updates and at one time replacement of an entire transport (under warranty) with limited success. Will play most redbook CD's. Plays DVD's depending on it's mood...will play several then a new one will be put in and it will not play it. After a two year adventure I give up and the 2900 is being thrown out. I am going back to Pioneer Elite or go to Ayre.

Not much to say about this unit. I have had absolutely no problem with this player from the get go. I take good care of my equipment, i.e. cleaning, demagnetizing, ect. and the result is dependable and excellent performance no matter if movies, redbook cd's or SACD's. I have the player sitting on some vibrapods with some homebrew resonance absorption material on top. Huge difference with my hard wood floors. The progressive scan with my DLP monitor is just mind blowing. I was thinking of upgrading to an HDMI player, but I'm really attached to this player. I know it went down in price after the 2910 series came out, but oh well. IMHO this is the price you pay with technology.

What is the Quality and assurance engineers in Denon do every day
Can't imagine a product like this come out to the market
In the first 4 months It get very hot
and still hot at the monment and even hotter than the power amplifier nearby
It catastrofic vibrates with some DVD disks and Made in China is a problem
Picture and movie action sound is worse than my DVD toshiba 100 USD
I not explore its music sound but it is enough to say this my last Denon pruduct I buy in my lifetime

I purchased the Denon 2900 to replace my 7 year old Aragon D2A DAC and G&D Transforms modified transport. The sound quality was most important to me with video being a distant second choice. I liked the idea of having one unit that did it all.

The CD quality of the Denon 2900 was comparable to the separates but not really any better. It sounds good but nothing to get overly excited about. The quality of the SACD and DVD-A over my Magneplaner II speakers is nothing short of amazing. I like the convenience of the SACD (with the SACD I don't have to continually reset it to STEREO while each DVD-A disk I use, I have to reset it to Stereo by turning on the TV and using the on screen menus. A real hassle).

The SACD is so natural and lifelike. It is a huge step up from CDs. I am buying nothing by new SACDs and avoiding the SACDs that are just remixes of older tape or older digital recordings. I am primarily classical and jazz oriented with some interest in the acoustic rock artists such as Rickie Lee Jones.

Next, I put on a DVD on a new high definition ready TV. Even though DVD is not high def, I was blown away by the quality of the picture. It was nothing short of breathtaking. I really didn't believe that there was much difference between the video sections of DVD players, but I was wrong. The Denon had the sharpest and most 3 dimensional picture I have ever seen.

In conclusion, I have never been so impressed with I product before other than my Magneplaners which are now going on 30 years old (with a rebuild about 8 years ago). For the price I paid or even the list price, it is well worth it.

Last Year I was looking to purchase a new DVD player with universal play capability, There was an excellent review in one of the UK mainstream audio magazines which acknowledged the Denon's class and poise but gave top spot to the Pioneer DVD 565A stating that you would get 90% of the Denon's performance for 25% of the cost. I bought this line of reasoning mainly due to the fact that money was tight.

I have now been using the Denon for about 6 weeks and I am sure that the reviewer was either drunk or deaf, the Pioneer is a good little player for what it cost but it should never be mentioned in the same breath as the Denon.

The DV 2900 is an Aston Martin compared to the Pioneer's Ford Probe. Having read some of the other reviews which cast doubt on the Denon's ability I am left wondering if we are reviewing the same piece of kit.

I would agree with the one criticism regarding the machine's Red Book reproduction, it is never going to play CDs like my Arcam CD23T but that was a no brainer. In all other respects this is an exceptional player of DVD V, DVD A and SACDs, since the day I installed it in my rack it has continued to improve to the point where I played Jean Michele Jarre's new CD/DVD AERO, I first played the red book disc in the Arcam then the 5.1 DTS track from the DVD, The quality from the CD was as I expected, superb in scale, ambience and dynamics when processed in Dolby Pro Logic IIx by my Yamaha RX-V2400RDS, surprisingly the Denon gave nothing away to the Arcam in any department, it actually sounded better due to the discreet nature of it's DTS 5.1 surround encoding, this must be the way forward for recording, try this DVD for yourself.

The video reproduction is startling, I have it connected via the component output with interlaced signals as my disply is not capable of accepting Progressive Scan output, The images cast are clear and free from artifacts with high colour saturation, I can only dream about what it is like with prog scan output but it must be special.

It is worth investing in good interconnects for this machine, after two weeks I upgraded both the digital and analog cables and there was an immediate improvement on what was an already very impressive sound